Page 54 of Spark
A soft curse spilled out of Chloe as Capelli pulled up what looked like surveillance footage from several different cameras both outside and inside the lab, time stamped on the evening of the fire.Everything looked normal, the building empty.Then, sure enough, the screens went simultaneously blank a few seconds later.
“Well, that explains why there was no system call to nine-one-one,” Addison said, “but come on.You can’t just hack into all this stuff without leaving a trace, right?”
“You can’t do anything online without leaving a trace.”Capelli’s brows pulled downward behind his glasses, his fingers flying over his keyboard.“Some people just know how to hide theirs.Luckily for us, I know—whoa.”
“It’s never good when he says that,” Addison murmured.After a few seconds, Capelli proved that this instance wouldn’t be the exception.
“The person who set this fire might not have been trying particularly hard to cover up the fact that he committed arson, but when he hacked into the system, he wanted to cover upeverything.”More typing, more frowning.“It looks like he used a very sophisticated loop.”
Tyler looked at the information on the array, then lifted his hands in surrender.“Okay.I’ll bite.What’s a loop?”
“A loop is a fundamental programming construct that allows a set of instructions to be executed repeatedly, either for a specific set of intervals or indefinitely.”
“Can you slow that down for those of us with smoother brains, Einstein?”Garza asked.
Capelli, who didn’t seem to take a lick of offense, simply did as asked.“Oh.It’s a circle.”
“Like an automation?”Tyler asked slowly, and Capelli brightened.
“Exactly.Our arsonist bypassed the security system by taking previously captured data and looping it into the mainframe.The system saw this”—he clicked back to the camera view of the quiet, empty lab—“but that’s not what was really happening.”
Realization unfolded in Chloe’s brain, making her pulse escalate.“So, this guy essentially tricked the system into thinking everything was fine so he could take control and do whatever he wanted, like access the filtration system and lock the clean room doors?”
“Yes, but…” More keystrokes.More frowning.“I think it’s more like guys.This loop would’ve needed to be monitored while it was in place to make sure it went undetected long enough for someone to set the fire.”
“So, there’s a hackerandan arsonist?”Chloe asked.
Addison, however, didn’t seem disheartened by that little nugget.“That might not be a bad thing.If we can figure out just one of their identities, we’d be in a good position to get them to flip on whoever orchestrated the fire.And if that turns out to be Navarro, we’d have him dead to rights, even if the DNA is a wash.”
“Do it,” Sinclair said.“Capelli, dig in on this hacker, and while you’re at it, let’s widen the net on camera footage from the night of the fire.Xander, Garza, look into the schematics for the lab.Floor plans, blueprints, containment system specs.This arsonist knew what he was doing.Let’s find out who can access the details.Hale and Maxwell, go through Dynamics employees, current and past.Take a hard look at anyone who might be disgruntled or strapped for cash—anyone at all who would give up intel on the layout of the lab.We need Navarro off the street, the sooner, the better.If he’s behind this, it’s how we get him.Let’s move, people.”
Everyone in the office moved at once, all turning toward their respective desks and keyboards, and Chloe fought to steady her spinning thoughts.“What should we do?”
“What you’ve been doing,” Sinclair said, splitting his gaze between her and Tyler.“Keep Esme steady and stay connected with Arson Investigation.We’ll update Tara, and as soon as we find something we can move on, you’ll know.”
Tyler nodded.“I’ll get Nat up to speed.”
“Sounds good.”Sinclair nodded once before heading to Capelli’s workstation.Chloe knew there was no better team in the city—hell, probably the state, or even on the entire East Coast—to bring this case to justice and keep Esme safe.She was living proof of their dedication and bravery.
But when Tyler looked at her and asked if she was okay, the “of course” that automatically crossed her lips was still a lie.
17
Tyler knew Chloe was full of shit.She put on a decent show for Sinclair, but by the time they’d made it out of the Intelligence office and back down to the street in front of the Thirty-Third, she’d bitten her lip four times and not uncreased her brows once.He got it—things like arson and murder were scary enough to most people.But for someone who knew that fear first-hand, who was also trying to protect a thirteen-year-old kid from that exact brand of danger?Sometimes even the best protectors needed someone to stand at their side, and he’d promised to be Chloe’s wingman.
No matter how pretty she’d been when she’d come undone in his arms or how good he’d feltnotwalking away from her afterward.
Tyler’s heart picked up the pace.Okay, so they’d had sex (great sex.Incredible sex.Earth-cracking, orbit-bending sex, and damn it, he should’ve known that promise would come back to bite him on the ass).But despite his worries that things would get weird after they’d seen each other naked on purpose, they’d just carried on, business as usual.In fact, every time his phone had lit up with texts from Chloe, he’d feltbetterthan usual.When she’d walked into the Thirty-Third today and gifted him with that smile?He’d lit up like a fucking firecracker.
Stowing that thought for later examination—or, preferably, no examination and no feelings that went with it—Tyler slid a glance at her through the late afternoon sunlight and addressed the matter at hand.“Okay, Ferguson.Air it out.”
Her lower lip fell free of her teeth, but at least she had the good grace not to come at him with some “air what out?”bullshit he’d have had to call her on.“Sorry.I’m just used to making macarons and éclairs and the occasional batch of pain-in-the-ass croissants.All of this high-stakes stuff is just a lot to process.”
“That tracks,” he said, because it really did.“You’re not going to go home and bake nine dozen chocolate chip cookies, are you?Or make up some last-minute bachelor and bachelorette party stuff to do without me just to keep busy?”
That, at least, earned him a small smile.“The cookies, maybe.But the party is in forty-eight hours.And, unfortunately for my desire to stay busy so I don’t overthink things, my wingman is an incredibly efficient guy, so there aren’t any tasks to invent.We have literally done them all.”
Tyler gently nudged her shoulder with his own as they walked through the parking lot behind the Thirty-Third.“I’ve heard that guy is pretty cool.”
